A COUPLE racing against time to save their frozen embryos have won a last-minute reprieve.

Michelle Hickman and husband Martin Hymers had until yesterday to find a surrogate mother or have their fertilised eggs destroyed after exceeding Britain's five-year storage limit.

Now the Stockport family have applied for permission for the embryos to be transferred to a country where storage limits are longer.

The six embryos, which are stored at the Manchester Fertility Services clinic in Whalley Range, will be kept while a decision is made, but will be destroyed if medical chiefs do not agree to the move.

Permission

Michelle said: "We believe they will probably give us permission to take the embryos overseas, but it is not certain.

"We and the doctors at our clinic have been trying to find a suitable country and clinic where they can go.

"There doesn't seem to be a list of countries which allow longer-term storage and we believe we're the first couple to be in this situation."

The legal limit for storing embryos intended for surrogacy is five years - although embryos which will be implanted in the natural mother's womb can be stored for longer.

The Heaton Chapel couple already have one son Robert, six, but want more children and created the six embryos after Michelle had a hysterectomy.

Despite a desperate search they have not been able to find a surrogate mother.

Storage

Although the couple created a second set of seven embryos, which are also in storage, they were told that the first set was likely to have a higher success rate.

Ministers are reviewing British embryology law and the couple hope there will be a change allowing them to bring the embryos back to Manchester while they search for a woman prepared to carry the embryos.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said it would consider the application for an export licence so the fertilised eggs can be taken to a country that allows them to be stored beyond Britain's limit. The USA and Spain are among countries whose laws could allow them to take the embryos.